James Potter, Welcome to Hogwarts
by MartinTomBlack
Summary: Following the adventures of Prongs, Moony and Padfoot from the beginning, and the developing romance between James and Lily.
1. 1 The Letter

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or anything related to Harry Potter_

**1.The Letter**

As the early morning light streamed through the window in his room, James Potter groaned as he rolled over away from the light and wired his eyes shut in a vain attempt to get more sleep. After about 5 minutes of lying in bed, he rolled lazily over the edge of his bed, miraculously landing on his feet. James made his way across the room to the walnut-wood dresser to get dressed. He pulled out a red shirt and grabbed a pair of clean-looking jeans. He quickly got changed and made his way down a long corridor and down a long, winding staircase.

He rubbed his eyes sleepily and pushed open the door that led into the kitchen. As he opened the doors, a flood of light came forward, catching his eyes_ We really need to get curtains down here._ James thought sleepily before resolving to ask his parents about it. James walked towards the deep red kitchen cabinets and grabbed a bowl and a box of cereal. He opened one of the drawers under the counter and pulled out a spoon, then walked over to the fridge, and took out the milk from the door. He went and sat at the ornate table, pouring his cereal and milk, and beginning to eat his cereal quietly.

By the time he was half-done his bowl of cereal, he was wide awake, as there was a slight tapping on the window across the kitchen. James' head swiveled towards the noise, dropping his spoon into his cereal in the process. He gasped as he saw a small tawny owl hovering outside his window, with a tanned envelope tied to its leg. He ran to the window and opened it letting the owl in. It flew around the kitchen about 3 times before finding the small perch near the window for post owls. The owl stuck out its leg, letting James untie the letter from it. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a couple on knuts and put it into the owls small payment pouch. The owl hooted appreciatively before spreading its wings and flying back out the window. James examined the envelope, his hand coming across a maroon wax seal, with a large capital, calligraphy 'H' in the center. On the front of the letter, in impeccably neat hand writing was...

Mr J. Potter  
Kitchen  
Potter Manor  
Godric's Hollow

His eyes opened wide, staring at the letter in front of him. He had finally gotten his letter! The letter he had been waiting the whole summer for. James slipped the letter into his pocket, half the envelope sticking out of the small boy's jeans pocket. He ran out the kitchen doors, which still hung wide open from earlier in the morning. He ran through the living room, being careful to not hit any of the antiques that were strewn about the room on pedestals.

Through the doorway of the living room was a large entrance way, with an intricate chandelier hanging from the high ceiling, reflecting light all about the entrance way. On the sides of the entrance way were 2 large staircases, leading to the landing above. James quickly started up the stairs excitedly. Once at the top of the stairs, he rushed down the hall, stopping at a large set of double doors. He slowly turned one of the door handles, and peeked his head into the room. The room was a beautiful deep maroon colour, while the carpet was a quite ordinary beige colour.

He looked to the far side of the room to see his parents still quite asleep. His dad, who looked very much like his son, slept on his stomach, his arms and legs spread out across the bed, his head tilted to the side, snoring peacefully. James' mom, however slept curled to the side, arms tucked to her chest, her legs slightly huddled towards her, and was breathing peacefully.

James stepped out onto the carpet of his parents room, his feet sinking into the deep carpet like sand at a beach. He crept stealthily towards his moms side of the bed. James looked to his parents, and had a crooked smile on his face 'C_an't have them sleeping through this wonderful occasion,'_ He thought slyly as a plan already brewed in his mind. James looked about the room one last time, breathed before yelling at the top of his lungs,"MOM! DAD! GRANDMA AND GRANDPA ARE HERE!"

His dad fell completely out of the bed on to the plush carpet, while his mom gasped and looked about the room. When all she saw was a grinning James standing 3 feet from the bed she started to get angry, not seeing his letter in his pocket. As James' dad got up to the bed level he started grinning also, seeing the letter instantly. As his mom turned to his dad for support, she saw his grin, and he pointed towards his pocket with the envelope sticking out. She gasped when she saw the letter dangling out of his pocket.

"Oh, James! It finally arrived?" She said ecstatically, "Honey, I'm so proud of you!" she said as she ran over to James and enveloped him in a bone-breaking hug. His mom gasped again at a sudden realization, "We still have to go to Diagon Ally and get your school supplies!" she said with shock riddled in her voice,"Go get ready you two, we're going today!" she said finality as James rushed out of the room.

"Hello, Tom!" said James' parents in unison to the young barkeeper of The Leaky Cauldron happily. The barkeeper grinned towards them,"Good afternoon Dave, Maria, what do I owe the honors?" asked Tom happily.

"Little James has finally gotten his letter," said Maria proudly, beaming down at her son, "And we're off to get his school supplies in the Ally."

Tom glanced over to James, seeing him look to the floor nervously, he chuckled, "Well, its about time, when did he get it?" Tom asked nodding towards James.

Dave laughed heartily, "He got it this morning, and gave us a right scare too."

Tom sent a questioning glance towards James. This time Maria joined in on the laughter. "You don't want to know," she said with a grin pointed towards James, who looked up for the first time since arriving and smiled back to his mother.

Tom merely laughed and nodded, "Have a good day!" he shouted after the Potters as they walked towards the wall that hid Diagon Ally behind it.

Maria tapped the bricks about the door with her wand, and after tapping the last one, the bricks began to fold back to form a marvelous archway. As James stepped beyond the archway, his jaw dropped in awe as he looked about the busy ally. No matter where he looked, he saw people dressed in robes of assorted colours, some fancier then others, and some just plain black robes.

Along the sides of the streets there were what seemed to James as two dozen shops, all seeming to sell important things for wizarding life, though the sock shop he saw to the right to him, seemed very out of place with cobwebs all over the windows. Just on the outside of the shops, there were what seemed like hundreds of stalls, all selling odd assortment of things from invisible socks that have self-cleaning charms to dungbombs and magical sweets to change your colour to the most interesting shade of pink.

"I remember the first time I came here," Dave said thoughtfully, "And I had the exact same impression, this place is amazing." His father looked to where James had looked before and he chuckled, "I'll be honest, I didn't expect the sock shop to still be there after 9 years."

Maria giggled and ushered them on towards Flourish & Blotts impatiently, "Lets see...you need this, this, this, and this..." She said quietly as she grabbed about 8 books from a shelf near the back of the store. She made her way up to the counter of the store and paid a couple of golden coins to the clerk.

As they walked out, the clerk waved to Maria and said, "Have a good day, Mrs. Potter!"

She looked back, smiled and waved to the clerk as she left through the door. Maria looked back to the two boys that were trudging behind slowly mumbling a string of incoherent words. She smiled back to the two behind her and yelled back to them, "Hurry up you guys, we still have to get a lot of stuff!"

The two males mumbled and caught up with Maria. She smiled and led them on what seemed to be an endless drone of shopping. Until she walked by the Quality Quidditch Supplies that is. As she pulled the two passed, they dug their heels in, got wide-eyed and looked pleadingly towards Maria. She sighed, looking at them for a second and waving her hand dismissively. James and Dave looked at each other and ran into the store, running from display to display for about 15 minutes before coming back out and resigning themselves to endless shopping. She looked at the two and laughed, "We only have one more store to go and that's it."

James looked up with a look of relief on his face as they walked towards Mr. Ollivander's wand shop. He walked in to the store and saw an old man standing behind the counter. When he looked up into James' eyes, a shiver went down his spine as the pale, moon-like eyes bored into his. He looked away, up to his mother and father who had a small chuckle.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, 13-inch ash wood with a dragon heart core, particularly good at hexes if I remember correctly."

Dave's eyes opened wide in shock, "Yes sir, very much so. We're here for James' first wand."

Mr. Ollivander looked over to James keenly, observing him for a moment before going to the back of the store.

"He gives me the creeps mum." said James quietly.

Maria chuckled softly, "But he is also best at what he does." Maria looked towards the back room of the store, "Now be quiet, he's coming back."

As Mr. Ollivander walked back towards them, he was holding a small, brown box. He opened the box and pulled out a dark wooden wand,"Try this one, young Mr. Potter, 11-inch mahogany wood, unicorn hair core, pliable, excellent for transfiguration. What are you waiting for, give it a whirl." he said excitedly gesturing at the wand.

"Oh, alright then." James said nervously. He looked down at the wand for a second, and flicked his wrist and out of the end of the wand shot red sparks that landed harmlessly about the store.

"Splendid," said Mr. Ollivander happily, "That will be 7 galleons."

Dave nodded, walked over to the counter, pulled out seven gold coins from his robes and placed them on the counter.

"Thank you, have a good day" Mr. Ollivander nodded and smiled at the family, which sent another shiver down James' spine.

As they walked out the door, Maria looked back at her son and her husband, "We're done shopping for the day, you guys can go wherever you guys want to." Both the men let out a loud whoop and ran in different directions.

James looked about the Ally as he ran, barely avoiding many shocked wizards and witches. He stopped while in front of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, as he heard his stomach growling fiercely. James shrugged and walked into the parlour and looked about. Most of the tables in the shop were full, except for one, in a far corner of the store. Sitting in a nearby waiting chair was a boy his age, with straight black hair, hanging over his eyes casually. James shrugged and sat next to the dark haired boy.

"You waiting for a table too?" James asked. The boy's head perked up as he looked over to James and nodded. A moment later, another boy walked in, with wavy light brown hair.

Just then, a waitress came in and looked to three boys and nodded,"Your table will be ready in just a moment." she said with a forced smile. The three boys looked to each other and shrugged, following the waitress, who was now walking towards an empty table. "Here are your menus." She said as she handed a menu to each of the boys. "I will be back in a couple of minutes to take your order." she finished. The three boys nodded at the waitress as she turned to walk back to the counter.

James looked to the other boys," Hi, I'm James," he said, sticking out his hand towards the dark haired boy, who accepted.

"Sirius." he said roughly with a nod.

James retracted his hand and held it out to the other boy who took his hand and shook it.

"Remus." he said firmly.

James nodded,"Are you guys going to Hogwarts too?" Both boys nodded as he continued, "I can't wait to get there, it sounds like fun, learning how to do magic." James said with a grin.

Just then the waitress walked over to them. "Have you boys made up your minds?" She asked politely. All three boys nodded and gave their orders to the waitress, she nodded and went to the counter, pulled out three ice creams and brought them back to the table.

"Thank you," said the three boys in unison.

"You've got to try this Sirius" said Remus passing his bowl of green and pink ice cream to Sirius.

"What flavour is it?" he asked, digging into the ice cream and using his spoon much like a shovel. An odd taste rushed down the back of Sirius' throat and he coughed as Remus began to laugh. "What the bloody hell is in this stuff?" Sirius asked, still choking on the ice cream slightly.

"Its strawberries and something else I can't pronounce, but it's good." Remus replied with a cocky grin. "And don't worry, happened to me the first time too."

During the whole encounter, James was laughing uncontrollably. Sirius glared at James for a second before joining his new friend.

"You guys should cover your nose and your ice cream, because its gonna be VERY stinky in a minute." said Sirius with a crooked grin.

James gasped, "You didn't," He said in shock.

"I did." said Sirius still smiling as he covered his nose with his sleeve.

Remus and James, seeing he wasn't kidding, hastened to do likewise. A couple seconds later, there was a loud bang from the kitchens and a dark green smoke wafted outwards. By the time everyone was out, the three boys were sitting on a bench across the street from the ice cream parlour, holding their sides as they laughed uncontrollably.

James looked around and saw his mom and dad down the street, waving at him to come. He sighed, and looked to his two new friends, "I've got to go, my mum wants me." He said sadly, "I'll see you guys at Hogwarts!"

At this, Sirius and Remus nodded vigorously, and waved their new friend goodbye. He walked back to his parents, who smiled at their son.

"They go to Hogwarts?" Dave asked, gesturing towards Sirius and Remus.

"Yeah, they do." James replied smiling.

Maria smiled, "Hopefully they will be in your house." She said quietly.

James looked to his mom, never hearing of houses in a school before.

Dave laughed loudly, "That's right, we never told poor James here about how they sort students at Hogwarts! Well, at the start of the school year they..."

By the time his father had gotten there, James wasn't paying attention to him and his explanation of the houses of Hogwarts, but of a girl his age, sitting at a table in The Leaky Cauldron. He could see auburn coloured hair, but as she turned around, he saw startling, vibrant green eyes, staring back at him. He looked away quickly, a red tinge coming to his cheeks, and hear his parents call out Potter Manor in front of the fireplace. James quickly took a pinch of floo powder and threw it into the fireplace absentmindedly, calling out Potter Manor. But his mind was no longer on school, his new friends that he just met or the prank Sirius had pulled in Florean Fortescue's, but on the girl who he just saw just moments ago sitting at the table in The leaky Cauldron. The moment played over and over in his head, his heart quickening its slow pace, and a strange thing he had never felt before in his life, began to spread from the pit of his stomach to all over his body. The rest of the night he could not take his mind off this girl, but he didn't know why. As he lay in bed thinking the day over, his thoughts drifted steadily back to the girl, and as he fell asleep, he thought of her piercing green eyes looking into his.


	2. 2 Train Ride

A/N: Sorry it took so long to upload, I sorta forgot about the story for a while, but hopefully I can get on track with this story and finish it, as I have a couple other story idea's wafting around. Oh, and before I forget thanks for the review's, I'm hoping to get a couple more with this chapter.

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling does, lucky girl she is. But, frolicking in the vast sand box that is the Harry Potter world will have to do._

**2. Train Ride**

"Mom please, everyone is watching," James said nervously, a red flush to his face as he looked about platform 9 ¾ over Maria's shoulder.

As the clock struck 10 o'clock, his mom let out a sob and gripped her son in a bone-crushing hug. He heard a bit of giggling and looked to Sirius and Remus, who were a couple feet away, laughing quietly. He scowled at his friends, which caused Sirius to laugh even harder.

His mom let go with a sigh, looking to her only son, "Just promise to not get in any trouble, alright?" Maria asked her son quietly.

James nodded, "Alright mum, I promise." He said his back to his friends, who noticed James put his hand behind his back and cross his fingers. Remus gasped, while Sirius started to grin widely.

Maria hugged her son one more time quickly, before leaving James to board the Hogwarts Express with his friends. James looked over to his dad, who was smiling at him.

James smiled back and turned back towards the scarlet locomotive and sighed as he hefted his trunk onto the train, Sirius and Remus following suit. They passed through the first 2 cars, passing many talking 5th year girls and a couple of other nervous first years. James sighed as they finally found a free compartment near the middle of the third car of the train.

Remus opened the compartment doors and walked in, still trudging his trunk behind him. Remus grunted as he put his trunk into the cabinet, and flopped into the comfy seats, "Next time, we are getting a seat earlier." Remus sighed, closing his weary eyes for a moment before hearing a loud _'thump'_ of trunks and 2 softer sounds from his 2 friends following his actions. James and Sirius simply nodded in agreement.

Sirius whistled softly, "It really is a great sight." he said, pointing towards the window of the compartment.

James looked out of the window and gasped, Sirius was right. It was amazing, in every sense of the word. The rolling green landscapes were covered in lush, green, long grass. Farther in the distance, there was a large forest of tall, regal looking trees, and fields of sunflowers, that shone in mid-days glow like the sun it self. From behind him, James heard a soft knocking.

"Oooh, the trolley lady is here!" Sirius said excitedly as he opened the door. "Trolley dears?" said the woman pushing the trolley, filled with sweets of every kind and some James had not heard of.

Sirius nodded vigorously, reaching for a couple small boxes of jelly beans. He reached into his pocket and gave the trolley woman a couple of sickles and knuts. James looked to the trolley and saw some chocolate frogs and grabbed them. He pulled out a couple of sickles and handed it to the trolley lady. She nodded to the two boys, looking to Remus, he shook his head, and the woman smiled kindly to him, nodded her head and left the three boys, heading to the next compartment. Remus reached over and closed the compartment doors and sighed.

Sirius looked at Remus, confused that his friend did not want any candy. He shrugged it off and ripped open the top of one of the boxes of jelly beans, "Bertie Bott's every flavor beans, and when they say every flavour they mean EVERY flavour. My brother, Regulus once had a brussel-sprout flavoured one once."

Remus and James shivered.

"But there are a lot of good flavoured ones." Sirius reached into the box, pulled out a white and green bean, threw it into his mouth and began to chew, "See, spearmint, you try one." He held the box out to James, who reluctantly put his hand in and pulled out a blackened bean, and put it into his mouth, and choked.  
"Pepper." James managed to say, still choking on the bean.

Sirius smiled at James,"I know mate, sorry 'bout that." he said, reaching into the box, pulling out a yellow bean and held it out to James, "Don't worry, this ones lemon." James grabbed the bean at his hand and examined the bean carefully before popping it into his mouth and bit down into the bean. Lemon, just like Sirius said. He sighed in relief, still chewing on the bean.

"Thats not going to get the taste out, try eating one of your chocolate frogs, that's what I did when I got a pepper."

James looked to his friend, nodded and grabbed a chocolate frog from his pile. He sighed slightly, looking to his cased chocolate frog he had in his hand. "I'm horrendous at catching these, they always manage to squirm through my fingers." James breathed deep and opened the small tin and stuck his hand over and grabbed it quickly, and immediately, it began to squirm fiercely in his hand. As he brought his hand up to his mouth to eat the small chocolate frog, he felt a sharp pain in his hand, "BLOODY HELL! WHAT WAS THAT?" he yelled loudly, holding his hand. He looked down and saw the chocolate frog bouncing around the room franticly. He sighed and looked down at his hand. His ring finger now had deep red marks, shaped suspiciously like bite marks, "Since when did they bloody bite or have teeth?" James asked angrily, looking to Sirius for the first time, who was holding his sides, bursting with laughter.

James looked to Remus, who was smiling widely and just shrugged.

"I dunno, it must be something new or something, never seen that before." Sirius said, still wiping tears from the corners of his eyes, "But you weren't kidding, you really are bad with chocolate frogs."

James grumbled and grabbed another of Sirius' every flavoured beans, he looked at it quickly before popping it into his mouth, a smooth brown colour. He chewed it for a couple of seconds, caramel, best one yet, '_Maybe I should really give these things a chance.'_ James thought before sticking his hand back into the box of jelly beans. James pulled out a handful and started to throw them into his mouth one by one without checking the colour, chewing them slowly at first then quickly later on, until he threw one into his mouth, gagged, and spit it onto the compartment carpet. Wiping his tongue on the hem of his shirt, he looked to Remus and Sirius,

"What flavour was it?" Remus asked looking at the yellowish jelly bean on the carpet,

"Vomit." James said distastefully.

"Ouch," Sirius said cringing slightly as his friend continued to try and rid his tongue of the putrid beans flavour.

James looked to Sirius and Remus,"I'll be back in a bit,"nodding towards the door. Sirius and Remus simply nodded as James left the compartment, going to the front of the third train, knowing that there was a washroom. After he came out, he heard a giggle coming from beside him, he turned and saw a small group of girls looking towards him. They were all his age, and all of them were blushing a slight bit, all whispering quickly, his breath caught as he looked closer at the individuals in the group. It was the girl he saw at the Leaky Cauldron the day he went to Diagon Ally. She looked at him smiling, and he felt all the blood rush to his face and all of the girls giggled at his reaction,"H-hi,"he stuttered out, his eyes still on the one girl, he shook his head for a second.

He put his hand out to the girls, one of the girls with long, straight brown hair, and wide, brown eyes came up shook his hand,"Sarah,"she said with a smile, looking into James eyes momentarily, before letting his hand go.

The second girl shook his hand lightly,"Tracy," said a petite brunette, with hazel eyes sweetly.

Finally, the girl from Diagon Ally came up and shook his hand, sending a shiver through-out his whole body,"Lily," she said with a serene smile, her green eyes locking onto his brown ones. Lily winked towards him, making him blush a deep red. At seeing this, she laughed, and headed back down the train,"See you at the sorting," Lily said with a wave as she disappeared through the door leading to the second car.

James went back to the compartment, still in awe of the whole situation. Lily, the girl from the Leaky Cauldron, was going to Hogwarts. As James opened the sliding compartment doors and walked into the compartment, still partly dazed of what had just happened. Sirius was first to notice this and as James collapsed into one of the seats, a dazed look in his eyes,"Whoa, what happened out there mate?" Sirius said in mock-awe.

Remus grinned as he noticed the look in James eyes,"I do believe, dear Sirius, that James here, has a crush." Remus stated in the utmost serious manor. Remus looked towards Sirius, who at the time had his hand over his mouth in an attempt not to laugh, which failed miserably as Sirius burst into fits of laughter, followed by Remus.

James looked to his two friends, who by now were on the compartment floor, holding their sides from laughter. "Why you guys laughing so hard?" James asked in an honest voice, which sent Remus and Sirius into an increased bout of laughter.

Remus was about to let James in on the joke, when the compartment door slid open, revealing a platinum-haired boy standing in the door way. He had pale complexion and looked to be about 3 years older then the rest of them. He sneered as he looked towards Sirius, who was still on the floor, wiping the tears out of his eyes,"I heard there was a Black on the train, I came to see if this was true." Sirius looked to Remus, who shrugged and shook his head.

Sirius sighed and stood up slowly,"Yes, Malfoy, I'm on the train, now what do you want?"

The boy hissed loudly,"How dare you, you would rather be with these," Malfoy stopped for a second before finishing,"filthy half-breeds then your own kind?" Malfoy finished, disgust seeping out of his voice as he looked towards Remus. At that point, James had heard enough, he stood up cleared his throat to get the attention of Malfoy. He looked towards him, just as James' fist span outward and caught him in the jaw, sending him flying to the ground. He looked towards James, a stunned expression frozen on his pale face as he held his jaw,"Don't, insult my friends, EVER!" James spat at Malfoy.

He sat frozen for a moment before scrambling to his feet,"You will rue the day Potter, I swear it, you will rue the day." Malfoy said before retreating towards the front of the train.

Remus looked in shock towards James at what had just happened, however, Sirius was grinning like a madman where he stood,"That was brilliant mate! Not smart mind you, but still brilliant!"

James shrugged as he sat back down, when he became aware of a dull pain in his hand,"Damn, he had a hard head." muttered James to no one in particular.

Remus shook his head,"You didn't need to do that you know."Remus said, looking at James' reddening hand. James shrugged and laid down on the compartment seat, and dozed off.

: ,;, ,

"HAH! Got your queen Remus!"Sirius proclaimed loudly, waking up the sleeping James, who mumbled incoherently about being woken up from a wonderful sleep.

Sirius looked at James as realization dawned on his face,"Oh, sorry mate, forgot for a second you were there." Sirius said apologetically.

Remus looked towards James also and shrugged,"We're almost at Hogwarts anyways, we would have had to wake him up anyways."

James made his way over to the window and looked out and gasped. The sky had gone from a blue sky to a dark summer night, the moon, shone brilliantly as it hung in the sky, casting a pale blue light across the rolling grassy landscape they were passing by. In the distance, James could make out a large illuminated shape, approaching quite quickly. James looked in awe as more and more of the castle came into view, and detail was easier seen. He reached into his trunk and pulled out a black Hogwarts robe and slipped it on over his head,'_That will have to do for now_' he thought hastily, looking to his friends who had done the same thing. James glanced to the window quickly and saw that the train had began to slow down and steadily come to a stop.

The trio quickly left the compartment and headed out the trains doors to the station in Hogemede,"First years, all first years, over here!" called an aging man to the large crowd of students,"Follow the lanterns to the lake, wait for a boat, and take it."

The three looked at each other and shrugged, following a line lanterns until they reached a dock with many boats sitting along it. They walked onto the dock and found an empty boat to take and sit in it. As soon as Sirius sat in the boat, it jolted a bit and began to move forward slowly. James looked around the lake and saw a couple of boats ahead of him. About 10 feet away, sitting in another boat, was Lily and her two friends whispering to each other and giggling softly. Just as James looked towards the boat, Lily turned about after one of her friends pointed at him. She looked at him for a second before waving to him. James blushed furiously and waved back as she turned back to her friends.

Sirius, who was looking in the water at the time, didn't notice the blush, but Remus, however did notice and smiled,"Ah, so SHE'S the one that has Jamesy wrapped around her finger."

By this time, Sirius had looked up and noticed to, as he started to grin as well and cleared his throat,"Jamesy's got a girlfriend, Jamesy's got a girlfriend..." he began to chant endlessly, and soon Remus joined in.

James started to blush a even deeper red, "Shut it guys."


End file.
